IWC Schaffhausen

IWC Schaffhausen sits in the wrong place for a Swiss watch house, working from the German-speaking north rather than the Vallee de Joux or Geneva, and founded there by an American engineer. The watches have carried the consequences of that ever since.

The house style is legibility and robustness rather than decoration. Dials are read at a glance, cases are built to take a knock, and the pilot’s watches remain the line most closely associated with the name because they were designed for a cockpit rather than a cuff. The boutique has held its New Bond Street address for more than a decade.

Choosing a Swiss watch boutique New Bond Street pilots would recognise

Pilot, Portugieser, Portofino and Ingenieur run across the floor, with the larger complications held in smaller numbers. Strap changes and sizing are done in the boutique while you wait, which matters more than it sounds on a watch you intend to wear daily.

Before you come for a complication

A perpetual calendar or a split-seconds chronograph is rarely sitting in a case. The team can bring a reference in from the wider network, but that takes days rather than minutes, so the call before the visit is the difference between handling one and reading about one.